About Us

Our Story

Welcome to Dust and Roots Farm, our homestead. We are David and Kristine; we live in a rural part of south western New Hampshire known as the Monadnock region. We are an older couple… well, at least I am; Kristine is somewhat younger. We are empty nesters, the kids are grown. I’m a retired firefighter/EMT (who is back on the job part time to help out with the pandemic) and Kristine (a volunteer firefighter/EMT for 15 years) is still working full time in human services. In 2016 we bought our dream home, a beautiful post and beam bow roof cape on a private road. Private in this case has nothing to do with exclusivity, it simply means fewer neighbors and no town services… the four of us that live on the lane are responsible for all road maintenance including snow removal. The house needed a bunch of work which we did the first couple of years. Now we are turning our attention to the property. We only have two acres, but there is much to be done. We both love being outdoors and have been moving bit by bit towards a more sustainable and resilient existence. We are not off grid and have no desire to be. Electricity and flush toilets are just fine with us. We burn a bunch of firewood to supplement our oil heat and have two oil tanks and a whole house standby generator. The power goes down here quite often and with only four houses on the lane, we are not anybody’s priority.

We have not had to buy any firewood since we moved here; we have cut down many trees… cut, split and stacked it all. We just bought a portable sawmill to cut costs on our building projects and have fun learning to be sawyers. We are going to put solar panels on the roof next year. We put in a good sized innovative raised bed garden in 2020 that worked well; we harvested over 40 pounds of tomatoes the first year. Nothing is convenient or nearby around here, groceries are a half hour away… there isn’t a gas station or restaurant in town. The house is very “green”; it is a super efficient structural insulated panel (SIP) design. We have a large wood working shop and a nice home gym (which we should probably visit more often) in the basement. We own several tractors, a couple of modern ones and a couple of antiques.

So this is the homestead adventure we have started on. And I want to add that we are going to homestead on our terms. I know many homesteaders recycle everything they can lay their hands on and build structures from recycled pallets and waste little or nothing. Hats off to them, I think it’s great. But it is also not my style. I like quality, well made things. And I value and appreciate beauty. Homesteading does not have to mean living in a ramshackle shack and keeping the thermostat at 58°. I want to live responsibly and do the right thing, but I also want to be comfortable and enjoy my surroundings. We took care of our children, obeyed the law, paid taxes, treated others well and worked very hard, often with more than one job. We have come by what we have honestly and now want to enjoy it.

We hope that this website and (maybe someday) a companion YouTube channel will give us the opportunity to share our journey with you. A comment about reading and writing is in order here. A couple friends have read a few of these entries and have said that they were enjoyable but long. I look at it this way, you either like to read or you don’t. If you don’t like to read, this may not be for you. Some people watch half hour YouTube videos; others will not. I’m not going to pander to the notion that people will only read things that take three minutes to read.

We are going to divide this website into different topics or areas of interest to make it easier to navigate rather than one endless blog. We hope to include lots of pictures to show what we are doing. We know some things, but there is much to learn along the way. We would like to emphasize that we don’t have a lot of land or expensive equipment. OK… the two new tractors were expensive; the two antique tractors cost less than $3000… for both of them! Our children help us sometimes; but mostly we do things on our own. But that’s OK… in fact, that’s the whole point. And neither of us grew up in the country or on a farm; far from it… we are both city kids. I grew up in the Fenway section (near the famous ball park) of Boston and Kristine grew up in Worcester. But, now we have lived in rural New Hampshire for about 30 years. Life doesn’t have to come to a halt when you get older, far from it. We are bound and determined to live out our lives robustly, learning new things, working the land and setting an example for our children and grand kids. As I approach 70 I realize I don’t have the stamina I once had. When I was in my forties I heated exclusively with wood. I harvested, cut and split eight to ten cords a year… by hand without the benefit of a hydraulic splitter. I had a couple chainsaws and the antique Farmall tractor to drag the trees out of the woods. When we moved to this house I bought a splitter and now the new tractors. But there still are echoes of yesteryear. Many of the big trees we dropped have trunks too big for the splitter. I quarter them the old fashioned way with a maul and wedges before they will fit on the splitter. Try that for a couple hours and you will know you did something! Kristine helps when she isn’t working. Make no mistake… homesteading and working the land is hard work, a vigorous lifestyle. It’s not the easy way, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I look at it this way: centuries ago we were all hunter gatherers. It was hard work just to stay alive. Today… not so much. Many of us spend our entire day indoors. We stopped getting off the couch to change channels years ago. We can order almost anything off the internet using our cell phones and get groceries including pre-prepared meals delivered to our homes. It’s not for me. I chose a physically challenging occupation and still want to be challenged in my daily life. People ask me “isn’t harvesting, cutting and splitting firewood a lot of work at your age?” I remind them that it is a lot of work at any age. Sure, it’s tiring but I don’t dread it. It’s part of the rhythm of my life, it feels right and I welcome it. It’s good to work hard and feel alive. Chainsaws are dangerous and I own several. Given the size of some of the logs I have to cut, I have some pretty big saws including one with a 25” bar. That saw demands my full attention; I understand the risks and enjoy the challenge.

In so many ways we are a lot like many of you. So, no matter how old you are, no matter how little land you have and no matter where you grew up… if you are interested in leading a more sustainable and self-reliant existence, you can do this. It’s a cool and rewarding thing to do. If we can do it… you can do it! Learn with us both from our mistakes and successes. And please share your thoughts and knowledge in the comments. We can all help each other with this process; there is so much to learn. There will be lots of entries on the different topics mentioned in this introduction as well as many others. So come on… please join us on our journey.

Thanks,

David and Kristine